Thomas Pynchon Essays

Thomas Pynchon is often associated with the postmodern literature. His two novels, The Crying of Lot 49 and Inherent Vice can be recognized as parody and pastiche of detective fiction. At first, the genre of detective fiction is depicted. The next two chapters confirms why The Crying of Lot 49 and Inherent Vice can be called parody and pastiche. The first chapter presents the definition of detective fiction in literature and depicts the difference between crime fiction and the story of detection

Thomas Pynchon is like Bigfoot, and Gravity’s Rainbow is like one of those rare photographs taken by fanatics. He rarely makes public appearances. There are only a few photos of him, mostly taken as a student at Cornell. Despite this, though, he is considered one of the greatest writers of the last few decades. The novel that cemented his place in the pantheon of American Literature was Gravity’s Rainbow. The story of the novel connects to the fears and passions of his contemporaries. Taking place

Character Analysis Within the novel The Crying lot of 49 the author Thomas Pynchon uses the characters within the story to reveal some of society’s unfair norms. Thomas uses each character to challenge and get readers to think about what is actually considered to be normal. Themes such as racism, gender roles, sexism, and a typical life appears throughout the story. Pynchon wants the readers to understand that in society we accept the roles given to us without trying to change, “Manny Di Presso

There have been several biographies of Jack Kerouac, examining and representing his life story, though his own autobiographical novel, On the Road is undeniably the most accurate biography of his actions, mentality. The author gave a response to the American values of the 1950s. Throughout his experiences, he represented the most characteristic features of this counterculture. Kerouac became an American icon, and the main character of his narration, Dean, an idol for the US youth of the post-war

Voices projecting from a distant television, bold headlines smothering tabloids, the caress of numbered buttons on automated teller machines, all harmonize creating a melody of distractions for a disease stricken society. A society attempting to occupy their senses with a soundtrack on repeat, failing to suppress an ever-present fear. Such imagery unnaturally emerges from the pages of DeLillo’s novel to emphasize the validity of its purpose. Unfortunately, the white noise fails to mask thoughts of

The Great Gatsby takes place in the 1920s, where society had discovered the real meaning and value of money. Only soon after the Great Depression, people's attention now fell on wealth and success in the financial realm. People were beginning to see the potential in becoming rich without limitations. Wealth turned into the new “prize” in the American Dream that individuals longed and pursued. In The Great Gatsby, money is a risk-taker with the characters connections and intentions but of course

Magic realism or magical realism is a genre where magic elements play a natural part in an otherwise mundane environment .Magic Realism is used in the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold to show how usual occurrences seem mystical through the addition of illusory details. Although it is most commonly used as a literary genre, magic realism also applies to film and the visual arts . Marquez cleverly employs magic realism in his works (One Hundred Years of Solitude) to mix magic and reality so that

The first chapter of Anthony Burgess’s novel A Clockwork Orange begins unlike anything we have ever read. From the first sentence to the last, the reader is faced with vocabulary that is unfamiliar and a narrative style that demands careful attention. This essay will focus primarily on diction and its historical context but also on the novel’s form. First of all, the unfamiliar language in this novel, while it may be straining, is ultimately intriguing. The invented Nadsat language, a prime example

Many scholars have already analyzed and scrutinized over Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, but there is always something new to learn. In a quote by Michael Ovitz, he says, “ The generality of situations that humans face in 'getting along with each other and the world'”. He talking about the human condition. William Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897, almost the turn of the century. He was born in New Albany Mississippi, and where he grew up influenced much of his work. Later in his life, he won

In the book The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald portrays and image of love versus infatuation. The relationships between the characters shows the struggle of an emotional connection in a world driven by societal pressures and money. Gatsby’s and Daisy’s relationship with each other is intertwined with each other’s love and lust, and is complicated with their other relationships, such as Daisy’s and Tom’s marriage. Gatsby is the “fool” in love throughout this whole endeavor and his week with Daisy

According to the Oxford English Dictionary a novel is defined as "A long fictional prose narrative, usually filling one or more volumes and typically representing character and action with some degree of realism and complexity." The American novel has developed greatly over time and first emerged in the United States of American at the ending of the eighteenth century. According to the book A Companion to the American Novel, "It is the genre that scholars most often turn to when they try to define

"This has got to be, patently, the most unbelievable, the most ridiculous story I have ever heard," remarks the narrator and protagonist of Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase, almost as if aware of the fantastical interweaves within the otherwise realistic, believable novel. In many of his works, Murakami has adopted this signature style of portraying the unbelievable and far-fetched in realistic settings, and is one of numerous writers and artists to have done so throughout the years. This technique

“Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists” (Franklin D. Roosevelt). In The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle, Delaney and other characters of the book introduce the racism of most communities by bringing up the topics of coyotes, borders, physically and mentally, and illegal Mexican immigrants. Each topic ties one another together. To most, there shows a problem with the immigrants coming to America, just because they didn’t

Touchdown Alexander Touchdown Alexander is an autobiography about the author, Shaun Alexander. Shaun is from the small town of Florence, Kentucky and was born on August 30th in 1977. His parents are Curtis and Carol Alexander, he also has one full brother named Durran who is older than him. His parents sadly separated when he was the age of 11. There are many different settings in this book. The first setting is Florence, Kentucky where he grew up and played high school football. The next

“Who Will Light Incense When Mother’s Gone?” is a nonfiction text written by Andrew Lam, and published on the Huffington Post. With Lam as the narrator, he tells the story of his Vietnamese-American identity, which often clashed with his mother’s traditional identity. Lam’s narrative utilized the themes of filial love and the quest for identity. He expressed his love and the formerly tense bond between he and his mother, while searching for his own identity as a Vietnamese child in America. Even

The novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy conveys a man and his son caught in a desolate post-apocalyptic United States, where the date is unknown. The author never reveals the name of the man and the boy which asserts the reader into living vicariously through them. McCarthy overstates the “barren, silent, godless”(4) and bleak setting to reiterate the contrast of the atmosphere in the novel to the reader’s surroundings. The novel contains immoral people who are willing to do anything for humanity's

Fragmented Humanity -Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, through the lens of Postmodernism Fragmentation, being the major tool of Postmodernism; the concept of fragmented identity has its due importance. The humanity was in a great search for identity after the World War II. Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient reads the pulse of the postmodern era. The idea of fragmentation is dealt exclusively in the novel. The distinct nature of post modernity is analyzed through the various forms

Remembering and forgetting are one of Alain Resnais themes along with troubled past and present, time, and personal and historical memory. Akira Kurosawa experiences disaster early at a young age. That catastrophe (the Great Kanto Earthquake) is horrible but, at the same time, important in his life, since recalling the emotions, experiences and memories of the calamity make Kurosawa’s works authentic. In Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour remembering can be seen on two levels: (1) the represented memories

RAWHIDE DOWN RAWHIDE DOWN was written by Del Quentin Wilber. This story is about when President Ronald Reagan was shot in a assassination attempt on March 30th, 1981. President Reagan survived because of the quick actions of Secret Service men and doctors. The main character is Ronald Reagan. He was a successful politician, actor, and radio announcer. Other Characters are John Hinckley Jr, Jerry Parr, James Brady, Timothy McCarthy, Al Haig, Nancy Reagan, Vice President George H. W. Bush

White Noise by Don Delillo uses the unusual story of Jack Gladney and his family to illustrate the postmodern ideas of death. The influence of death's presence on the character's mentality, consumerist behavior and everyday life, manipulates the thought process and actions that the characters display. Those which are most conscious of death such as Jack Gladney and Babette are more connected to and consumed by it. They are both so controlled by the fear of death that their normal thought process